Originally published in 1979, Geraldine Ellis Watson's Big Thicket Plant Ecology is now back in print. This updated edition explores the plant biology, ecology, geology, and environmental regions of the Big Thicket National Preserve.

After decades of research on the Big Thicket, Watson concluded that the Big Thicket was unique for its biological diversity, due mainly to interactions of geology and climate. A visitor in the Big Thicket could look in four different directions from one spot and view scenes typical of the Appalachians, the Florida Everglades, a southwestern desert, or...

Places of special beauty, grandeur, and abundance bring us closer to nature's healing powers. However, the healing touch of nature can also be found in our own backyards. From the minute to the grandiose, nature's beauty can lift, soothe, and strengthen everyone who is willing to take a moment to watch and listen. It was in the Big Thicket of East Texas and the Big Bend of far West Texas where artist Jeanne Norsworthy began to appreciate these special gifts. She responded by creating drawings and paintings that now transmit the power of these extraordinary sites to those who view her pictures...

When Geraldine Watson's father was a teenager around the turn of the last century, he spent a summer floating down the Neches River, called Snow River by the Indians. Watson grew up hearing his tales of the steamboats, log rafts, and the flora and fauna of East Texas. So when she was sixty-three years old, she decided to repeat his odyssey in her own backwater boat.
"Reflections on the Neches" is both the story of her journey retracing her father's steps and a natural and social history of the Neches region of the Big Thicket. The Neches, one of the last "wild" rivers in Texas, is now...